The Luzhin Defence
by Carmabaeji - Lively Aria
Summary: The weekend in Santa Barbara, Jack/Nina, Jack/Teri....Kim gets a few lines. My version of what happened...Back story, no plot, no spoilers.
1. Our story and his past

The Luzhin Defense  
  
(not in anyway based on the book by Vladimir Nabokov)  
  
by Aria  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own them (loud gasps were heard from around the room, the chairman tapped his microphone, pushing his glasses back to the top of his nose before he spoke 'you mean you were playing with somebody else's toys?' he spoke with an English accent and deep bass voice. I sobbed and looked at my feet as I plucked up the courage to reply. 'yes')  
  
Rating: PG-13, was going to go higher, but I get embarrassed writing smut!  
  
Summary: That weekend in Santa Barbara. A little Jack-Nina-Teri story.  
  
Author's note: This doesn't follow on from any other fic I've written. This story has no action in its plot, although it is designed to provide a little back-story. All of my fics are designed to tie up a few loose ends, like 'Blackened Armour' ties up some of how Tony now knows about the keycard and why he is apologetic to Jack an hour later. Shameless plug! 'Nobel Business' doesn't really tie up any plot, but whilst we're on the topic of shameless plugs....  
  
  
  
"Hello I'd like to check that everything's in order for my reservation this weekend?" The desk clerk prompted her for her name and she gave it, tapping her pen on her desk as she watched the steam fuming out the top of her coffee mug.  
  
The clerk came back with the information about her room, the number, dates of stay, and her booking information. She read it over the phone, and Nina nodded as she listened to the details, scribbling them down in the same code she used to take down all the phone messages. "Okay, thanks." Nina said and hung up the phone. She glanced up at Jack's office.  
  
Through the green glass she could see him sitting at his desk, his back to the room below. He seemed to be on his own phone, and so she held back.  
  
It was January 11th, and she'd planned a long weekend away for her and Jack. They were going to go down to Santa Barbara together, leaving tomorrow morning and returning late on Monday night. She'd rented a car, booked a hotel, made reservations for dinner for tomorrow night, and she was just waiting for Jack to get off the phone line to confirm what he was doing.  
  
She'd honed her investigative skills with the unit for precisely this type of real life work. Nina had discovered many things since she'd begun sleeping with her superior but a large one of them was his love of chess.  
  
The first time they'd slept together had been at his new apartment, one of his first nights there. The kitchen and bedroom had been unpacked, along with two lounge chairs. She'd woken several times during the night, each time next to him, each time only to be pulled back into the bed, except one. Sometime around five am, she'd woken alone. It was a few months ago, but still winter, and his apartment had been dark. Nina had made her way past the piles of boxes to find him in the kitchen, seated at his breakfast bar, poring over some papers from CTU, sipping a glass of scotch.  
  
"Hey." She'd said, not startling him because he'd heard her footsteps, he looked over and smiled at her, so she advanced further, running a hand along his shoulder and down his arm, leaning over to look at his work.  
  
Jack dropped his pen on the counter and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer until she perched herself on his leg, resting her head back on his shoulder. She'd sighed contentedly, it was incredibly domestic, but she wasn't worried, she was comforted, happy, even. Jack slid his arm under hers, drawing sliding a finger inside her shirt and drawing lazy circles on her stomach. Nina rewarded him, tilting her head and kissing his neck as he began to speak. "I was hoping to finish this and sneak back to bed before you woke up." He was apologising, rapidly reshuffling the papers with his free hand. He leaned into her. "There's a chess board over there, if you set it up, we can play when I'm finished with this page."  
  
Nina had slid off his leg, choosing, instead to perch herself on the table to kiss him. She'd much rather have gone back to bed after he'd finished, but she'd wandered over to the box next to the armchair and taken the lid off, on the top of the box was a chess set, wooden, the board folded, thick wood, brass hinges. Inside were the pieces, carved from resin, still soft, and she'd put the box lid back, clutching the set in her arms and made her way back to the table.  
  
She knew not to talk. Jack was reading the papers in front of him, not content with one page, he'd turned over Tony's report and was half way through the next page, making notes on a legal pad. Nina placed the chest board down on the table, setting it up in silence, there was enough space at the end of the bar for the set, and she unfolded the box, laying the pieces down carefully. She laid them out, rook, bishop, knight, king, queen, knight, bishop, rook. Letting the queen sit on her own colour, as the king would. A row of pawns, she examined each piece between her fingers, rolling the soft wood between her fingers, and then rubbing the layer of oil across her finger tips. She sniffed it, and when she still couldn't identify it, licked it. It was olive oil, from a recent polish.  
  
Jack finished as Nina collected a glass from one of his cupboards. "You thirsty?" he asked, coming up behind her to wrap his arms around her waist.  
  
"Yeah." She muttered, turning the cold tap on full blast and testing the water, not cold enough yet. "You got any ice?" she asked, arching her neck to give him better access as he kissed it.  
  
Jack took her glass, moving over to the fridge and disappearing inside it for a few minutes. He returned with a glass of iced water and ice, passing it to her as she turned off the tap and wiped her hands on a nearby hand towel. He took a second glass from the cabinet and got himself a glass of the same, then led the way to the countertop where the chessboard was.  
  
He swapped the knights and bishops on each side, and waited for her to sit down whilst he took a sip. "Have you played this recently?" he asked, as she slid onto the stool opposite him.  
  
Nina looked at the pieces, glancing over at Jack. "Not in a few years." She admitted, crossing her legs under the table, brushing his as she did so. The bar was narrow, and their legs were touching underneath it. It was too thin for them to sit completely separate, where Jack's legs touched hers she felt warm, and slipped off her shoes, letting them drop to the floor beneath her feet. She moved her piece, a pawn and settled down taking a casual sip of her water. She was trying to play by gauging Jack's face as he made his move, but she lost in less than thirty moves, and was soon dragging Jack to his bedroom, where she was sure she'd win.  
  
Ever since that night the chessboard had always been present in his apartment, in the corner, on the breakfast bar. She'd helped him unpack a large number of his boxes, and once it was organised he'd set up the chessboard on a table in the corner. Occasionally there'd be a game in progress, something he and Kim were playing, then he wouldn't ask to play, but Nina was a trained psychologist, and noticed the occasional glance over at the chess board, the way he avoided it. Jack was a huge chess fan.  
  
And here she'd planned a weekend to feed his hobby. She watched as Jack got up from his chair and made his way across the room, finished with whatever he was doing, and got up from her desk, grabbing a folder she had to give him anyway, and making sure any agents who needed her could stop her before she walked upstairs, so they wouldn't be disturbed.  
  
Jack's door was shut, which usually meant he didn't want to be disturbed. It always applied to the rest of his agents, but long before she'd started sleeping with him it had stopped applying to her. She opened the door and shut it behind her, locking out the hum of noise from downstairs.  
  
"What's that?" he asked her, gesturing to the file in her hand.  
  
Nina raised it and placed it on his desk. "From District about an hour ago, it's the budget." It was one of the heaviest files she'd had in her inbox, and the plastic had stopped bowing now it was gone. It landed on his desk with a thud, and Jack opened up the first page, shutting it as quickly as he saw the first column.  
  
"Any problems?" he asked.  
  
"No, they approved the extra money we asked for, for stun guns, Jamie's pay rise..." Nina told him, waiting for his face to light up.  
  
And it did. He smiled. "She was on a pathetic salary." He said, folding his arms and smiling.  
  
"It's not what we asked for, but it's something." Nina turned the folder round and flicked through it, she'd memorised the page number that gave them her pay rise, and showed it to him, running her finger above the line that mechanically approved the extra seven and a half thousand dollars a year.  
  
He nodded, "With the number of hours she puts in..." He read the line she'd gestured to, "It's closer to what she deserves." Jack scratched his cheek as he read the amount, and bit his tongue when he realised the difference between their request and what they'd been given. It was a pretty large difference.  
  
Nina wandered across the room and took a seat on his couch. You couldn't see that far into his office from the floor below, and she knew he felt more comfortable talking about them when he knew no one could see. Jack turned, perching himself on the back support of one of his chairs, "What's up?" he asked her.  
  
"I've posted myself out and unreachable for the weekend." She told him.  
  
"I posted Santa Barbara, I'm taking my cell." He replied. They'd agreed that Jack would be the one to be available, as head of the unit, he needed to be reachable, but obviously if he was called in, Nina would come in too. No one was going to know that Nina was with him this weekend. "You're still not going to tell me what we're doing this weekend?"  
  
Nina shook her head. "Santa Barbara."  
  
"Yes, but something tells me there's more to it, and you won't tell me where we're staying." Jack commented, he was smiling now.  
  
"You don't like surprises?" She asked coyly, leaning back on the sofa and crossing her legs.  
  
"In our line of work they're generally not good thing, Nina." Jack said, almost throwing himself off the chair to join her on the sofa. She merely smiled wider in response. "So you're not going to tell me?" he asked, once more, hoping for a different answer.  
  
She shook her head. "I got a rental car for the weekend, I was going to come by and meet you at your place at four." Jack's mood changed suddenly, he became pensive. On the sofa he reached for her hand, watching it as he intertwined each of their fingers in turn, and stroked her thumb for a moment. Nina sat upright, sensing the change.  
  
"Is everything okay?"  
  
Jack nodded slowly, and then summoned the courage to look back up at her face. "Can we make that a bit later, say, six?" He stood and walked back over to his desk. His body language told Nina he was definitely disturbed.  
  
"Yeah," she scowled, and stood, watching as he sat down at his desk, suddenly back to business. "I thought you were going to post out at three?" She queried.  
  
"I am..." he paused long enough to check if Nina wanted him to continue. She did. "I've got something else to take care of."  
  
Nina nodded, accepting his answer, and making her way to the door. If she wanted to enjoy herself this weekend she'd have to at least halfway empty her in-tray. She glanced at him as she left the room, but he was already deep into a file. As she pulled the door open Jack called her back. "I was going to give Jamey her raise tomorrow, what time's she in?"  
  
Nina lifted her eyes to the ceiling as she recalled the shifts she'd signed off on earlier in the week. "Ten." She said eventually, just as she saw Jack's hand go for his computer to find out for himself. He pulled it back when she spoke, grabbing a pen.  
  
"You want to come in for the meeting?" He asked.  
  
Nina nodded at his thoughtfulness, they'd both campaigned with Walsh, Chappelle and Mason about how useful Jamey was, but she couldn't. "I said I'd be leaving tomorrow morning." She told him. Jack nodded, almost giving Nina permission to go, but knowing he'd never told her when to leave before and she's resent it he started, it wasn't an order, but Nina left anyway, anxious to get back to work.  
  
-24-  
  
"Jack." Greeted Michael Kenwood, Jack's family lawyer and a good friend. Although they rarely saw each other, they'd always had a good relationship. Teri insisted on inviting family business associates to Christmas parties, and it was at one of her parties four years ago that he had met his wife, one of Teri's workers at the museum.  
  
Jack shook his hand, and smiled, nervous, although he didn't project it, at Michael. "How you been?" Michael asked, leaning over to his secretary as he waited for a response, he requested some files off of her, and she handed them over from one of the piles off of her desk.  
  
"Good, good." Michael led him inside his office, Jack took a chair on the wrong side of the desk, and took a few minutes to make himself comfortable.  
  
"I have to admit I was a little surprised by your call." Michael admitted as he straightened his suit to sit. "I didn't realise you and Teri were having problems." He leant forward over his desk, trying to minimise the distance between them.  
  
"You didn't notice at the Christmas party?" Jack asked. Although he'd gone to his wife's Christmas party, it was the first time in years he'd actually brought a 'friend from work' he'd taken Nina, and although they had made a point to appear nothing more than friends, whilst Teri and he had appeared to be together still, it hadn't been comfortable for any of them, even though Teri had no idea Nina and he were seeing each other.  
  
"Cara did say to me that she thought something was wrong, but I told her she was imagining things." Jack nodded. There was a tense moment, when neither one of them spoke. Michael felt out of place advising Jack on anything, and Jack didn't want to divulge to Michael he'd been seeing Nina. If Teri decided that this was what she wanted, and kicked up a fight, she could use that against him. He'd started worrying about his marriage the day that he'd started debating strategies. "Anyway, these are the papers, such as you asked me to draw up." He pushed the file he'd requested from his secretary across the desk. Jack opened the binder and read the first few lines.  
  
"You get a third of your combined total assets, such as they were in June, and Teri keeps the house. Joint custody of Kim, although it doesn't specify numbers of days, given that she's fifteen and with your job..."  
  
"Sixteen."  
  
"I'm sorry?"  
  
"She's sixteen, her birthday was a week ago." Jack said, melancholy. He turned a few more pages into the papers, and then shut the folder again. "Thank you, I'll give these to her tonight." He stood.  
  
"Jack..." Michael called him back. Jack raised his eyebrows, to encourage him to continue but he didn't, swallowing what ever he had to say. "Never mind." 


	2. A divorce and a drive

Nina switched off the engine as she pulled to the curb opposite Jack's apartment building. She climbed out of the car and locked the driver's side door, what little use it would do. The car was a choice of reckless abandon; she'd chosen to rent a convertible for the weekend, deciding if she was going to rent a car over a national holiday weekend the extra cost might as well go towards something good. It had a good engine under it's silver bonnet, and Nina didn't for a second consider the name to be important, but the car was a Mazda roadster, a make she rarely saw driving around LA. Whilst she'd heard the well-known clichés about sports cars, she was sure from both Jack's choice of car and from personal experience he had no need for a phallic symbol, she thought he'd enjoy driving a sports car, just for the weekend.  
  
She walked up the steps to the entrance and buzzed the panel she knew was his apartment. The building super had yet to label it with his surname, even though he'd been there more than six months now. There was no answer, so she folded her arms and walked around the building to the parking lot. She wandered over to his parking space, empty. Confused, she made her way back out to the car as she saw his jeep pull into the parking lot.  
  
As usual, Jack pulled into his parking space and broke so that he stopped a few inches from the wall. He jumped out of his car and slammed the door shut, pressing the door lock button quickly. "Am I late?" he asked, walking straight past Nina for the second apartment entrance.  
  
"A few minutes." She replied, catching up with him as he held the door open for her. "Do you want to go get your things and meet me outside?" She fingered the key fob in her hands as she spoke, pausing at the bottom of the stairs.  
  
Jack considered this for a moment. "Yeah." He eventually replied, and then started back up the stairs again. "I'll meet you outside in ten."  
  
Nina went back towards the front entrance to his building and back out onto the street again. For rush hour, the road outside his apartment was unusually empty. She crossed it without having to wait for any cars to pass, and climbed back into the car. It was warm for a winter evening, unusually warm for a January evening, but Nina remembered that this was southern Californian, not the twin cities, and reached over to open the glove box and pull out her sunglasses.  
  
She reconsidered, checking the handbrake and switching on the ignition, before she pushed the armrest up and slid into the passenger seat, then she collected her sunglasses and leaned back in her seat, listening to the radio.  
  
"This is the car you rented?" Jack yelled incredulous as he crossed the road. He had a joking smile on his face. He was carrying his bag for the weekend over his shoulder, and Nina clicked the button to open the boot as he made his way closer. He put it in the boot and shut the lid. In a minute he'd climbed into the drivers seat and had pulled his sunglasses on. He wrapped an arm around Nina. "This is the car you rented?" He asked again.  
  
"Thought a change would be good." She said, peering up from his arms.  
  
"Well it's definitely a change." He agreed, hugging her even tighter for a moment before he let her go. "You know you're middle aged when..." He laughed at himself, and then put the car in gear. He checked his mirrors and blind spot and then pulled quickly out into the road.  
  
-24-  
  
Jack's cell phone rang a mile or two before the turn off for Los Padres national forest, the 166. Nina instantly recognised the ring. "Is that yours?" Jack asked, watching in the corner of his eye as Nina reached down into the glove box.  
  
"No, it's yours." She retrieved his phone and checked the display. "It's your wife." She told him, as 'home' flashed up on the display. "Do you want to answer it?" She knew he wouldn't want her to do it, but this car didn't have an in-car phone system, so he couldn't hear the phone well.  
  
Jack slowed the car and moved back into the inside lane, "No, I'll call back." He said. He pulled off the freeway into the forest, and drove until he found somewhere to turn off and stop. Nina handed him his phone as he turned the transmission off, and climbed out of the car. "This'll only take a second." He told her, heading into the forest.  
  
Once the sound of the car radio was gone, Jack was satisfied he was out of earshot. He flicked open his phone and let it dial the last number, his home. It was Kim who picked up the phone. "Hello."  
  
"Hey, honey, it's Dad. Did you just call?" He asked. He always returned his daughter's calls, and he never did so in front of Nina, she wouldn't want to hear it.  
  
"No, it was mom." Kim said, curtly.  
  
"Oh, well can you get her for me?" Jack asked, slightly taken aback by his daughter's tone. He was used to Teri speaking to him like that on the telephone.  
  
"She's in bed now, crying in her room."  
  
"Oh," He turned and leant against a tree, giving him a good view of where he'd walked from, and a decent warning if Nina came looking for him. "How are you, then, sweetheart? How's school been this week?"  
  
Kim let out a loud sob that resounded in the telephone. "Is it true?" She wailed down the line, "Do you want a divorce from mom?"  
  
"Ah, honey..." he cooed, not really sure how to answer. "It's been more than six months now, your mom won't talk to me."  
  
Kim gasped for breath, obviously crying heavily now, "Have you guys tried?"  
  
"Sweetheart, I'd like to, but your mom and I have problems, and I can't do anything if she doesn't want to talk to me." Jack told her. He hated telling his daughter that it was Teri's choice that they didn't talk, but it was true, and he couldn't have her hate him. He couldn't cope with that.  
  
"But, Daddy, a divorce?" Calling him 'daddy' seemed to soothe Kim.  
  
"Look, your mom and I need to talk about the divorce papers, but I'm giving her the weekend to think about them."  
  
"Dad..."  
  
"Sweetheart, I know you're upset." He sympathised, "but maybe in the long run it'll be better, for all of us."  
  
"How will it be better?" Kim's tears were slowly drying up; her pitch was gradually lowering to its normal level.  
  
"Just trust me, honey." Jack closed his eyes in frustration, he didn't want to deal with this right now, although he realised he'd probably organised this so he was forced to. "Look, I'm out of town this weekend, I'll be back Monday night." He took a few steps away from the tree and towards the car. "Tell your mom to call me, and we can talk about this when we get back, until then, don't worry about it."  
  
"Okay," She said, her sobs having subsided significantly now.  
  
"Are you okay?" He asked her. "I love you, honey. I love you so much."  
  
"I'm fine." Then as almost an after thought, "Yeah, I love you too, Dad."  
  
"So I'll call you on Monday, okay?" Kim was nodding on the other end of the phone line, it took her a few moments to realise she had to reply, and then she said her good-byes and hung up the phone.  
  
Jack flicked his phone shut; he rested against a tree and wiped his face, his damp eyes, composing himself before he returned to Nina and the car. She'd obviously turned the radio up, but she turned it back down when he approached the car.  
  
He opened the door as she sat upright. "Is everything okay?" She queried, fully ready to let him drive back to the city if anything had happened.  
  
"Yeah, it's all fine." He dismissed her; he sat down in his seat, turning the key that extra bit in the ignition so that the car engine started. Nina reached over, covered his hand, and flicked the engine off, shutting off the radio at the same time.  
  
"Are you sure?" Nina didn't want to know the details of his problems with his wife, but she had to ask out of concern for him.  
  
Jack leant back in his seat, letting out a long sigh, Nina leant towards him, placing what was meant to be a comforting hand near his leg, her fingers resting gently on his thigh. He reached out a hand, smoothing stray hairs away as he caressed her cheek. He kissed her, quickly, softly and pulled back. "Yeah, nothing to worry about."  
  
Nina regarded him warily for a moment, as he continued caressing her cheek, rubbing his thumb along her jawbone, stopping at the corner of her mouth, and then dipping the tip between her lips. Eventually she nodded, leaning into him and kissing him.  
  
When the kiss added to the fact her hand slowly slid up his thigh, Jack ran his hand from her neck, down her chest, around her, pulling her to him. The kiss became more passionate, and as his tongue delved further into her mouth, he maneuvered her over him, pulling her on top of him. "Jack..." she groaned, as she felt him against her leg.  
  
"Have you seen any cars in the last few minutes?" He asked her. He hadn't heard any car sound whilst he'd been on the phone, but she'd actually been sitting in the car. He kissed her neck, her collarbone, as he waited for her to respond.  
  
"No." She eventually muttered.  
  
"Then let's be brazen for the weekend." He pulled away to give her a chance to refuse. He considered how attractive she looked for a moment, her beige skirt hiked up to the tops of her thighs, giving him just enough room to rub her leg, and her khaki 'v' neck showing enough of a hint of cleavage. Her skin was flushed, and she'd shut her eyes for a moment, obviously as intrigued by the idea as he was. Eventually she leant forward, shaking her head, but smiling, with a mischievous glimmer in her eyes, and kissed him, deliberately touching, groping, moaning as he touched her, until she kissed him for the last time, and slid off of him back into her seat.  
  
She leant her head onto his shoulder. "That was interesting." She said.  
  
Jack laughed, after he'd caught his breath. He leaned in and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her torso. He found it hard to break the kiss, his hand lowering to the raised hem of her skirt, ready to reach under it, until he thought the better of himself, and pulled away. "We should get back on the road." He said sensibly, the sky was already quite dark.  
  
"Yeah," whispered Nina, breathlessly. Then, glancing at his trousers, "Do you want me to drive?" 


	3. An arrival and a game

-24-  
  
Santa Barbara was an Old Spanish town, built centuries ago, destroyed in a storm, and rebuilt in the twenties. It was famous for an ancient courthouse, missionaries, and festivals. Jack had absolutely no idea where he was going as Nina gave him instructions from a map and a computer printed page on her lap. "Okay, next left."  
  
Jack did as told; indicating left before he checked in any of his mirrors, and slowed enough to pull in to the next road on his left. She told him to pull into a large driveway, complete with green plants on either side, and he slowed as they reached the front of an old Tudor building. "Park up." Nina said, pushing open her door as soon as he'd stopped. A teenager made his way out of the building, wearing a smart 'bell-boy' suit that he was obviously uncomfortable in, as he adjusted it seven times before he reached the car.  
  
Jack put the car in park and put on the hand brake. "Why do I feel like I'm being kidnapped?" he asked her.  
  
Nina just laughed, shutting the car door as Jack pulled the key out and climbed out of the car. The bellboy made his way to the boot of the car, and opened it, taking out Nina and Jack's bags and placing them on the pavement. Nina walked up to Jack and took the car keys, resting her hand on his lower back whilst she handed them to a second bellboy. She looked up at him, offering an uneasy smile as he caught her. He leant in and kissed her as she gestured to the house.  
  
"We going in?" He asked.  
  
"Room 12." The first boy said, collecting one bag in each hand, he took a few steps towards the house. "If you'll follow me, Mr Myers, Miss Bauer."  
  
Jack and Nina glanced at each other, and smiled, they followed him into the Tudor house. Inside it was anything but modern. The floors were huge wood, the walls were some kind of clay, adobe, There were carpets and a few desks, each one seeming slightly out of line with the general aura of the city, the bell-boy passed a few clerks, he spoke a few words to each, without Nina or Jack having to say anything. They walked together a few feet from the bellboy, Jack taking in as much detail about the building as possible, holding Nina closer still, and Nina watched him, paying a little attention to the path she walked.  
  
Eventually they came to rest outside their room, and the bellboy opened the door, setting one of their bags down on the ground as he opened the door. "This is your room, number 12." He pushed open the door and stood aside, waiting for Jack and Nina to step through. Nina let go of Jack's arm so he could walk around the room, half listening as the bellboy explained the amenities of the room to her. Eventually she accepted the keys into the palm of her hand, stuffed a few dollars into the young man's hand and let him leave.  
  
Jack noticed Nina go into the bathroom and changed his discovery route. The room was lovely; Nina was certainly hoping to have a nice weekend together. The room was beautifully decorated, huge thick curtains with elaborate designs, heavy piled carpet and comfortable sofas towards one end of the room, a bed at the other. The bed was covered with a huge throw rug, thousands of pillows, it was flanked by huge wooden armoires, and Jack walked around it, testing the mattress. He sat upright as Nina emerged from the bathroom.  
  
He had had yet to wander out onto the balcony when she approached the bed. "What do you think?" She was deliberate, gripping his lapels to pull herself into his lap, raising herself above him, she wanted to tease him.  
  
Jack smiled at her, pulling her head down to kiss her. He didn't respond verbally, just pulled her closer and closer to him until she landed on the bed on top of him, which he quickly rolled so she was underneath, constantly kissing her. "It's very nice." He muttered to the crook of her neck, and then unfastened top two buttons of her shirt.  
  
Knowing Nina as he did, he paused, "What time are our reservations?" He asked her. Nina arched her back as she whined, inadvertently pressing her chest against him.  
  
"Nine thirty." She admitted. "I'm almost afraid to ask, what time is it?"  
  
Jack glanced over at where the clock would be, had it been one of their beds, and sure enough, a small digital clock was on the side, it was ten past nine. "We have twenty minutes." He told her, hovering above her, propped up by his elbows.  
  
"To get there and get dressed." She pointed out, considering their options. They were both ruffled and tired from the drive here, and could use a few minutes to relax. Jack flopped over onto his back, and let out an exhausted sigh, probably hoping they would post pone, or even forget dinner. Eventually he pulled himself out of bed, and hoisted Nina up too. "Jack, what are you doing?"  
  
He pushed her towards the bathroom, "We can fit in a quick shower, and be a few minutes late."  
  
"We?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"We?"  
  
"Yes." He was turning on the bathroom lights now.  
  
"You're putting an awful lot of confidence into the size of the shower."  
  
-24-  
  
Jack rolled over and wrapped his arm around her waist, sighing contentedly into her shoulder. She couldn't escape for long. The second she rolled onto her side, Jack would move in behind her and spoon her, wrapping an arm around her waist and resting his head on her shoulder. Whilst she hated thinking about Jack's wife, she had to wonder, as a psychologist. She presumed that they always slept close together, and Jack associated sleeping on your side, away from the other person in the bed was a sign of anger. This was most likely why Jack spooned her every time she moved away, it was a natural response that something like fifteen years of marriage had programmed into him.  
  
Nina, on the other hand, was a singleton, she was quite happy sleeping on her side, alone, in fact she found it more comfortable sleeping apart from whoever else was in the bed, it was hot with another person there, and it didn't matter when it was someone you didn't care about. But she'd started turning the air-conditioning up an extra notch in their apartments to accommodate him, and was beginning to find it comforting to have Jack sleeping beside her. She hated herself for thinking she was getting 'weak' simply for accommodating him, but couldn't help compromising for him just the same. Tonight had, after all, been incredible, just like every other night. If she wasn't going to change her habits for good sex and a relationship, then it really wasn't worth doing it for anything.  
  
When Jack's hand started to draw circles on her stomach she realised just how awake he was, she had presumed he'd be exhausted. He was obviously too tired for one thing, and too awake for the other - the in-between option was inevitable. She heard his words before he said them "Pity we don't have a chess board here."  
  
She smiled to herself, and then rolled over onto her back. "You mean you didn't pack one?" Jack knew his chess obsession was of great amusement to her, and laughed at her innocent expression. "I've got an idea." Nina jumped out of bed and scrambled over to her suitcase, she quickly found a few items of clothing to pull on. She pulled out a pair of knickers and a tight purple sweater, choosing to forego the bra in the interest of comfort. She turned back to Jack and noticed he was still in bed, on his side, having left a gap where she had been. "Come on." She beckoned.  
  
He sat up in bed, the covers pooled themselves at his hips, exposing his muscular chest and tattooed arms, and he scratched his chin. He was tired, and groggily called out to her. "We're not seriously going to go find a chess board at this time of night, are we?"  
  
Nina put her hands on her hips. "Come on." She turned back to her suitcase, and was delighted to notice him crawl out of bed and make his way over to his bag in her peripheral vision. She eventually found a long black skirt in her case and tugged it on, turning to see Jack pull a shirt over his head.  
  
She found a hair band in the top of her suitcase and tied up her offensive hair, it was getting to a very awkward length, dangling around just below her ears, tickling her neck, she was going to have to get a cut when they got back to the city. Satisfied with her appearance, she grabbed their room keycard and held it in front of her as she backed towards the door. "Pocket?" she asked him, knowing she had none. He took the offered piece of white plastic, and tucked it in his trouser pocket.  
  
They only passed two hotel employees on their way to the garden, both in the lobby. They had passed another two patrons in the corridor, but they were so wound up in each other that they failed to notice Jack and Nina, who had to slide past them whilst they fumbled with both each other and the hotel key simultaneously. They were able to limit their reactions to the couple to a few raised eyebrows and knowing smiles, at least until they reached the elevator.  
  
Nina asked Jack to shut his eyes as they made their way out into the garden, and even knowing he wouldn't, lead the way though the garden. It was lovely, short lush green grass, and several tall willow trees. There were a few flowerbeds but the buds were shut for the night, and several areas where there were tall hedges scattered around the garden, they isolated tennis courts, swimming pools. Nina could hear the solid thumps of a late night tennis game, and continued on, pulling Jack towards a particular gap in the hedge.  
  
"You can open your..." Nina began, turning to look at Jack. Much to her shock, his eyes were shut, having yet to hear her words. She was touched, knowing it was completely against his nature. She smiled, and placed a soft kiss on each cheek, just underneath his closed eyelids. "Open your eyes, Jack." She whispered.  
  
When Jack opened his eyes he smiled, and wandered off, instantly wanting to explore what was presented in front of him. "What is this?" He asked, as he walked around her surprise.  
  
"Do you like it? It was brought here from England fifty years ago - it was for the children to play with during the grand master's chess tournaments." Jack touched each piece as he passed it. He was walking around a giant chess board, alternating coloured paving tiles in the ground, and huge wooden pieces, chest high, laid out ready to play.  
  
Nina circled the board and came to rest in the middle, perching herself on the edge of a pawn. "Do you want to play?" She asked him, raising an eyebrow mischievously.  
  
Jack smirked to himself. It could be a lot more fun with life sized chess pieces. "Okay...but my rules?" 


	4. Dinner and dancing

"Well, I have to say, strip chess is certainly something I've never played before." Nina led with, as her contribution to the conversation at dinner. They'd been given a seat in the corner of the restaurant, but despite their isolation, Nina could see a smirk on the face of a man just over Jack's shoulder.  
  
"Are you complaining?" There was a soft smile on his face as he buttered his roll.  
  
"No, just....surprised." She added with some thought. Jack finally raised the buttered bread to his mouth and took a large bite, the smile growing larger as he thought back to their escapades last night.  
  
"How many bedroom lights came on suddenly last night?"  
  
She let out a soft snort. "Would you prefer I keep it down next time?"  
  
Jack raised his eyebrows at her, she'd timed her question so that his mouth was full at the time. From his vantage point he could see the waiter making his way over with the dessert they'd ordered to share, both sure that their earlier food had filled their stomachs.  
  
"Or were you criticising? We can find out how many rooms are occupied and I can count next time if you like...." She brought her hands back up to the table, having spent the last ten minutes fiddling with her napkin.  
  
The waiter began to move the flowers and candle from the centre of the table so he could place the dessert between the two of them. They both leaned back, giving the man more than enough room. He gave them both extra napkins and utensils, and then placed a large bowl between them, their elaborately decorated sweet, that Nina had chosen.  
  
"Thanks..." said Jack to the waiter, and then "...what exactly is it that I'm eating?"  
  
Nina collected her fork and spiked directly into the middle of the white mass in front of them. The forkful she collected was multicoloured, a layer of pastry and then something red followed by a layer of white mass. "Well, this is white chocolate mousse..." She held her fork over the plate to avoid dropping it on the table cloth, and gestured to each layer in turn with her free index finger. "...these are raspberries...and this is a layer of puff pastry."  
  
"Does it taste good?" He asked her.  
  
"I don't know yet." She muttered, finishing the demonstration and bringing the mouthful to her lips.  
  
"Hey, hey..." Jack interrupted, snapping a finger. She raised an eyebrow at him, that just got higher as he tugged on her wrist and took the food off the end of her fork.  
  
The comical aspect of the situation was strong enough for her smirk to last until he'd finished the mouthful. "Well, it's better than chocolate pudding..."  
  
Another soft snort, he took the fork from her and dug into the middle of the dish, returning with a forkful much like hers, but a little sloppier. "So we're feeding each other now?" She queried, just as the fork closed the last few inches to her mouth and she began to eat. The comment held hints of sarcasm and ridicule, but both of them thought it was a charming and endearing notion. The taste was incredible.  
  
"Well, if we wanted to quibble, I've given you worse things to put in your mouth...." She had to swallow the mouthful quickly, cutting out on some of the flavour, to avoid laughing and losing the food in a scene.  
  
Jack managed to keep a deadpan face, but the guy behind him chuckled, and whispered Jack's comment to his friend. Because of her laughter, it took her longer to finish her mouthful than expected, and it was too late to comment when she did.  
  
"Mind you, you can consider those times payback for your cooking..."  
  
Nina gave him a big smile, he was one of few men that could make her laugh. That prestigious group included just him, her brother and the 'Umbilical Brothers' an Australian comedy act. "Ignoring the insult to my cooking for a minute, maybe I should cook for you more often."  
  
Jack obviously didn't like the dessert as much as she did, feeding more of it to her than she did to him. She chased the remains of the mousse off the plate whilst Jack ordered their coffees, and then the bill. The waiter took the plate at the same time as he brought the bill, and she had to race him to put her credit card down before him.  
  
"Nina..." he growled as they tossed their cards to the plate at the same time, hers had landed first. She picked his up and held it out to him. Neither of them wanted to make a scene, but they'd been at the restaurant for a while, and the waiter was hovering, so it was inevitable they'd be over heard.  
  
"Jack?" he queried innocently.  
  
"Why should I let you pay?"  
  
"Why should I let _you_ pay?"  
  
"How about the fact that you planned this entire weekend, you've done enough for the weekend..."  
  
"Exactly, I planned it, I'm paying..."  
  
"Just let me pay for dinner, come on, Nina." She'd let him pay for dinner last night, but they could continue the argument forever if she didn't just give in now. At some point in the conversation he'd picked up her credit card and was holding it out to her in the same manner as she held hers to him. She let out a staggered sigh and dropped his card back on his dish, the waiter collected it quickly, and took hers from him, slotting it back into her wallet.  
  
Jack took a sip of his coffee, his middle finger tapping the side of his saucer as the small cup made its way to and from his mouth. There was something he wanted to know. "What?" Nina eventually asked, when the cup had made it's way down and Jack showed no hint of asking his question.  
  
"We did financial disclosure on Monday..."  
  
Nina raised her eyebrows at him, she didn't see where this was leading, so she prompted "You discovered that money I made drug dealing...."  
  
Jack ignored her sarcasm. "You're clean."  
  
"Well, thank you." She said, not at all surprised. Every three months the financial records of each agent working at CTU was vetted by their superior officer, they were checked for any discrepancies, just in case they were taking money from a terrorist organisation. They were many ways to get around vetting, but CTU did it anyway. "What's wrong then?"  
  
"Mason approved all you records up until you started working for me - "  
  
She cut him off this time, sure of what he wanted. "And you wanted to know how I made my money?"  
  
Jack smiled, it was an impertinent question, but he had been wondering. "I had wondered."  
  
"Haven't you read my file?" She asked, resting her cheek on her palm. The coffee was too hot to drink anyway, a conversation with Jack seemed a good enough way to pass the time.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And you didn't happen to notice those published papers, the years I spent on the lecture circuit?" She asked, amazed how easily he managed to breeze over certain details.  
  
"Yeah - so, you were a lecturer?"  
  
"Whilst I worked on my masters. I toured for a while, lecturing for a few weeks at a time, writing..." She paused a minute. She was sure that Jack had absolutely no idea what her papers were on, and wanted to ask, but felt that he couldn't. "...international politics and security - the theory, you were doing, I wrote."  
  
"You advised the UN too, didn't you?" He wondered, now begining to recall the contents of her dossier.  
  
"Yes, but that certainly didn't pay well. I did the majority of my lecturing then actually - I made more money as a policy advisor outside of the office than inside it. People tended to be impressed when they were lectured by Nina Myers, SSP advisor to the UN."  
  
"It's an impressive title." Jack muttered. He leant forward and replaced his cup and saucer on the table in front of him. He took Nina's hand from around the saucer and interlaced their fingers low on the table, playing with her thumb.  
  
Nina covered her surprise with a sip of coffee and a joke. "And now I'm Nina Myers, office lakey, who writes boring reports and sleeps with her boss."  
  
Jack took her seriously, giving up on her thumb, and squeezing her fingers "Do you regret giving up the title, the money?"  
  
She gave humour a second attempt. "I will do if you start printing business cards out for me that say _that_." She earned a smile, and was relieved. "No, I make much more of an impact doing this than I ever did for the UN. I get more job satisfaction."  
  
Jacks smile got much wider, and she knew he'd slipped into a more diverted mindset. He let go of her hand to edit and sign the bill as their waiter approached, and she took the opportunity to drain the remaining liquid in one quick gulp.  
  
"You ready to go?" He asked her, he glanced at his watch as he tugged his sleeves up a little.  
  
"Yeah, what time is it?" She asked, she'd noticed the surreptitious glance at his watch, and had been worrying about the time herself. She still had plans for them tonight.  
  
"Half eleven." He muttered as she rose from the table and pushed her chair in. He rose too, and guided her out of the restaurant, placing a guiding hand on the small of her back. They made it to the door, said their goodbyes to the wait staff and waited as their car was brought round the corner of the building.  
  
Nina wound an arm behind his and slipped her hand into the waistband of his trousers at the far side of his body. "You still awake?" She asked him, relishing the cold wind on her face.  
  
"Yeah, but I wouldn't mind going to bed anyway." He whispered, offering a quick glance at the end of his sentence, as their rental car appeared in front of him.  
  
"Too bad." Nina muttered to him as she opened the passenger side door and climbed in. Jack watched her for a minute before he rounded the car and sat down next to her, ready to drive off on another one of her little escapades.  
  
-24-  
  
"You okay?" She yelled into Jack's ear, leaning close to be heard over the sound of the music emanating from the dance floor below. After dinner they'd returned to the hotel to give her a chance to change and Jack a chance to get out of the evenings plans, to sleep, but now they were back out again.  
  
"Yeah, I'm just a little..." Surprised? "...Yeah." He answered her, relishing in the chance to pull her body to his just to answer a simple question.  
  
They were in Mambo no. 6, a nightclub, named as a play on the song by a similar name. They were standing on the ledge that ran around the room, overlooking the dance floor below, or at least it would have done if there wasn't a crowd of people blocking the dance floor. The upper ledge was decorated with surfing and tropical memorabilia. Surf boards adorned the walls, whilst the bar was made of thick wood, slapped disorderedly into place. The bar offered cocktails along a tropical theme, whilst the waiters handed out colourful plastic lei to all their customers. The bartender had taken a shine to Nina, and leant over the barrier when she ordered her shot, dropping the plastic necklace on her naked shoulders and whispering to her "You got lei-d."  
  
The dancefloor below was a different theme altogether, hardcore dancing, the walls of, what could only be described as the pit, were painted black, and at the far end sat a dj in her box, blonde braids tied up behind a wide alice band, pink sunglasses rooted in front of her eyes as she mixed on four decks of music. There were four podiums, each at different corners of the pit, evacuated of extrovert dancers at regular intervals to provide space for the scantily clad gogo girls, who danced the same dance at different speeds. A line of green lasers was shone across the room at floor height, so that you walked through the rotating lights as you ventured to the dance floor. Strobe lasers flashed, slowing down the movements of the dancers to a few feet movements and waving of their hands every second, the strobe making them appear so active.  
  
Nina's hand gripped Jack's where it hung, waist height as he nodded in time with the music and glanced around the room. He took in the room as he looked at his date, his eyes resting on Nina as she turned away from him, watching the DJ box on the floor across the room. Her second hand touched her shot on the sticky bar, claiming the drink as hers, a thick layer of caramel coloured liquid topped with a layer of whipped cream. His black shirt and trousers matched the dress code of the bar, however he was positive they'd be coated in sweat when he started dancing.  
  
Nina, however, would probably be much more comfortable. Her black vest was backless, supported by five, he'd counted, thin straps, adorned with beads, that hung loose against her skin, illustrating her thin figure. The only place they were tight was around her chest, where her small breasts managed to fill out the flimsy piece of material. She wore a pair of tight black trousers, that hung low on her waist, leaving the sides of her thong poking out of the top.  
  
He was still memerised by the lighter skin at the top of her trousers when her hand tightened around his and she began moving in time to the beat. She gripped her second hand around his and leant forward, collecting the shot glass with her mouth and swallowing the shot, slowly letting the piece of glass out from her top lip, when she looked as though she was about to drop it, Jack reached out and took the glass from her. He put it down on the counter as she wiped her mouth of the last dregs of drink. She smiled at him. "I want to dance." She told him.  
  
Jack didn't hear the words, but he saw her lips move and was then tugged to the dance floor. Down the steps of the dancefloor, clutching his beer bottle in one hand and weaving between people, gripping Nina with the other. She pulled him into a narrow gap in the middle, and started dancing, moving her hips and arms in time with the music.  
  
"Hey boy! Hey girl!" She yelled, in time with several hundred other clubbers and the record. "Superstar DJ, here we go." The dance music became more thrashing, and she danced away like mad, shaking her body with the lively music. It wasn't long before the crowds of men they were dancing near began to turn and dance around her, reaching out hands occasionally to try and pull her hips to theirs. More often than not Nina didn't notice them, so they got deflected and ignored. When she noticed them, they pulled her to them, and she'd dance with them for a little while, grinding her hips against theirs until they got bored of dancing with her back and left. Jack wasn't as active at dancing as any of these men, and finished off his beer as Nina finished dancing with one of them, dropping the green glass on the floor and gripping her wrist.  
  
He wrenched her out of the next man's clutches and pulled her into him. She was quite happy to dance with him, she slid over his leg, dancing against his thighs and wrapping an arm around his waist. Jack slipped an arm around her waist in turn, resting his palm on her buttock. This was a fast tune, but they could get away with dancing at this, much slower pace.  
  
Nina leant in and rested her forehead against his shoulder. Jack cupped her chin, raising it for a quick, church kiss, before letting her lean against his bicep, and dance the rest of the night there.  
  
-24- 


	5. Some champagne and some chess

The constant grinding took its toll, with Nina gyrating against his hip for most of the evening, and when they finally returned to the hotel, around four am, he dragged her straight into the bed, letting the sheets wipe off the sweat, and staying there until long after sunrise, long after their chances for another postcoital game of chess were finished.  
  
It was barely Sunday morning when they woke up. One minute to noon that passed as Jack watched Nina sleeping beside him. At home they never slept together, not an entire night. In LA they would have sex, lie in bed for a while, and then get up, perhaps play a game of chess in their underwear - sometimes, afterwards, Nina would come back to bed with him, and then dress and return home, shower, sleep a little and they'd meet at work.  
  
With the exception of their first night together, he'd never had the option of watching her sleep for more than a few seconds. She looked so peaceful. Unlike Kim and Teri, a smile didn't appear on her mouth as she slept, but the constant tension disappeared, her mouth periodically opened and closed as she breathed in and out, eventually rotating her body and removing the obstruction from her nose, away from the pillow, so she could breathe evenly.  
  
She landed on Jack's shoulder, resting a hand on his elbow and sighing contentedly as she returned to sleep. Jack brushed a fallen hair away from her nose as it began to twitch, and slid himself down onto the bed, level with her. She was beautiful.  
  
Her beauty seemed to alleviate the pain of not being with Teri. She'd been such a constant with him for the last two years, he trusted her, and it made the transition between coworker and lover so much easier. Teri had met her a few times, and they got along, well enough for the limited purposes of their acquaintance. For the first few weeks of their separation Jack had thought about Teri much more often than when they were together, even before Nightfall, but in the last few weeks, especially this weekend with her, he found himself thinking about Nina far more than Teri.  
  
He knew this wasn't love, at least not yet.  
  
She coughed in her sleep, a deep throaty sound, bathing his face with breath. He wrinkled his nose at the sudden movement and slid a hand onto her waist, his thumb rubbed her navel, and she stirred, yawning, he was prepared this time, and slowly opened her eyes.  
  
The curtains were drawn and the room was mainly dark, stripes of bright light punctuated the room at regular intervals where the curtains split, the ceiling lamp, the door, across the middle of the bed. The ambient light around the room meant she could make out Jack's face, and open her eyes without much blinking.  
  
"Good morning." She grumbled, shutting her eyes again and leaning towards him.  
  
Jack leant over her hunched form and looked up at the clock, settling back on the bed as quickly as possible. "Afternoon actually." He corrected, and draped a hand above their heads across the pillow, stroking the hair at the base of her neck.  
  
"Good afternoon." She corrected herself. She yawned again, covering her mouth this time and raising an arm above her head, she stretched out her entire body, pushing out her chest at Jack and stretching her toes to the end of the bed. Eventually she settled back against the bed, burrowing into the mattress and wrapping the sheets around her, fully content to go back to sleep.  
  
Jack had other ideas, he pulled away the covers not long after she tightened them around her, and began kissing her, his hands roaming her body, suddenly very turned on.  
  
-24-  
  
Nina wiggled her toes as she looked down at her feet, stretched out in front of her slightly off centre of the chessboard. Jack was considering his next move, and she was getting bored. "Jack?" She called as she turned her head a little towards his position, not bothering to continue the entire movement.  
  
"Drink your champagne and quit whining." Jack called from behind her, probably standing somewhere near her queen. She was one move away from checkmate, and, if the amount of time Jack had spent considering this move was any indication, he knew it. She let out a sigh, and collected her glass of champagne from the white square, taking quite a long sip.  
  
Jack had decided to be a little more imaginative with his wagers today. The games yesterday, and their first night, had been orientated around removing clothing. One item when you lost a piece. The first two games hadn't really been all that successful. They'd only pulled on a few essentials in order to come downstairs, so after they'd sacrificed three pieces, they were both naked, and no one was watching.  
  
Today's wagers were games in trade for favours. Nina had won two and Jack had only won one - possibly because Nina had taken delight in distracting him with descriptions of what he had to pay her with. He wanted to win this game, and Nina had given up taunting him, instead settling for an equally distracting tactic, sitting on the board drinking champagne, and bending her knees so that her skirt fell and bared much more skin than he was used to seeing.  
  
Jack had realised the predicament of his chess pieces, and couldn't see a way out. "I taught you this game too well." He sighed, sacrificing his bishop in the hope of saving his king. He sat down on the board, next to Nina, only maneuvering himself into position as she leapt up to make her move.  
  
"I knew how to play before I met you." She argued, swooping down for her champagne glass. She took a sip and wandered over to the area of the board where all the action was.  
  
"Oh," Jack poured himself another half glass of champagne. "Is that why I beat you in 22 moves our first night together?" He knew he was getting her a little wound up, but he wasn't bothered about repercussions at work, and it could be fun.  
  
Suddenly Jack's head was drenched in champagne - what little was left in Nina's glass, as she poured it over his head, not at all bothered that some made its way down his shirt and back. "It was 28, and I was rusty." She retorted, and he heard her skip back over to her queen.  
  
"Checkmate!" Nina announced proudly, once she carried the large wooden queen over three spaces. Jack stood to look at her accomplishment and she wandered round the pieces back towards him, grinning - though not as widely as he was.  
  
"Well done." Jack congratulated, he knew when to applaud his troops for their work. Nina was stood in front of him, he was expecting her arms to wind around him and kiss him, any second now. She looked up at him and laughed, just as he brought the champagne bottle out from behind him back.  
  
Jack managed to pour champagne on her leg as she sprinted to the other side of the chess board, managing to cut a path through the assorted wooden pieces before she turned back to look at him. She squealed his name as she moved away. When she turned back he was having a worse time crossing the board than she had, he'd knocked over two pieces and was about to topple a third.  
  
Jack jumped in time to avoid tripping on his fallen pawn as he noticed Nina change direction and run to an alternate corner of the board. She was calling his name constantly and waving her arms, as if expecting that that would stop him from soaking her from head to toe. To be honest, it was just turning him on. Jack cut across the chest board, and reached the corner just as she changed direction again, heading into the middle of the board.  
  
Jack made a start towards one opening just as Nina took a step towards another, and he soon got an idea. He took another step in the opposite direction and pushed a piece in closer to the board. Nina was too busy laughing and watching his eyes to notice what he was doing.  
  
Jack took a step further towards her and she took one out. Nina wondered if she could continue with this stalemate forever - she really didn't want to, he hadn't congratulated her on her game yet, and she wanted that kiss. She supposed that this provided her with a chance to think up a suitable wager for her game...what did she want Jack to do to her tonight?  
  
Jack took a step towards her, near one of his fallen pieces, and Nina took a step backwards, she nearly hit a chess piece and pivoted quickly - he'd trapped her in, how on earth did she not notice? Whilst she'd been having lurid thoughts he'd preyed on her distraction and assembled a castle of chess pieces around her, and she was trapped - the only entrance or exit was where Jack was quickly approaching from brandishing the bottle of champagne much like the weapon it was.  
  
There was only one thing for it, Nina took a dive between his legs and quickly crawled to her feet running over the fallen rook, pawn and knight and making it to the edge of the chess board, just as Jack's arms closed around her.  
  
Jack emptied the remainder of the bottle of champagne on Nina's head. He held her tight to him, although she didn't struggle much after the initial capture, and emptied the bottle, shaking it when the flow began to stop. He dropped the bottle from waist height onto the grass, it didn't break, and it just rolled down the bank to the edge of the chessboard, the green glass reflecting on the lightwood.  
  
The champagne had poured down her hair, across her forehead and face and soaked more than half her dress. It had made its way down her back and had soaked areas of his shirt, but he wasn't all that bothered, Nina was convulsing with laughter in his arms, and her entire dripping body was pressed against his. He turned her, still laughing and pushed aside the bangs of soggy black hair that had plastered to her face. She finally stopped laughing when her mind turned to thoughts of lust, just as his had, when he kissed her, making damn sure she realised what he was going for.  
  
Nina pulled away, laughing again as she wrapped her arms around his neck, quickly checking what their visibility was in this part of their sectioned off secret garden. They kissed again, and as Jack's hands roamed down to grip her buttocks through the soaking dress, she lifted her legs, wrapping them around his hips pressing herself as close as possible to his erection.  
  
Jack had to break the kiss to groan, and work out a way to drop them to the ground, without actually dropping her, and loosing the contact that it seemed to important to him to keep at that moment. Nina grew frustrated with his pause, arching her chest against him - the damp material adding to the weight of her breasts, until Jack dropped to his knees, and lowered her down onto the grass so he could lie atop her.  
  
"I won." She whispered, before he moved in to kiss her, distracting him for a moment.  
  
"Yes, you did." Jack diverted enough blood back to her brain to reply, and ran a hand down her side to the end of her dress. "Well done." He fingered the end of the skirt, taking in her clothing. "This is a pretty dress." He told her.  
  
She laughed at him, which only served to make him happier. He slid his hand under the skirt, letting it make its way up her leg as he leant in to kiss her. "I'll send you the dry cleaning bill." She whispered, biting on her lower lip. Jack captured her nibbling teeth, saving the lip and probed her mouth, just as his finger reached the edge of her panties.  
  
He reached his fingers up to the waistband and slid a thumb under the edge of the material, tauntingly rubbing the skin there. "Only if I get to do this again." He whispered, kissing her earlobe. "Can I?"  
  
Nina moaned, arching her back and whispering his name. But this time, not the weight of her breasts nor the visual of her doing _that_ would move him off his task, and he asked again, his thumb moving lower on her abdomen. "Can I?"  
  
She whimpered his name again, and he moved the hand that he braced himself on down to chest level, sliding the thumb underneath her breast. He remembered an earlier observation when he encountered no barrier to his movements; her skin was directly underneath the gauzy dress. "Of course, Jack! I'll do what ever you want."  
  
Jack grinned, hoping he'd remember she'd said that later, and yanked at the tiny piece of silk, getting it all the way down to her knees before he stopped and grappled with his own belt and fly instead. 


	6. A shower and a surfing lesson

-24-  
  
"Well I definitely need a shower." Nina confided, stepping into the elevator, attached to the side of Jack's hip. She reached out and pressed the button for floor one, just above them, and waited for the door to close and Jack to talk.  
  
"Why?" He asked, as though there could be some new reason to take a shower that he didn't know of.  
  
"Champagne..." She prompted.  
  
"I thought I got all of that?" Jack asked. He referred, of course, to the time he'd spent chasing the drops of champagne with his tongue after their al-fresco session on the grass. Something they were beginning to get used to.  
  
Nina shook her head and held a strand of matted hair out in front of her face. They smiled and shared a kiss before the door opened on their floor. Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out their key card, passing it to Nina to open the door with, they walked down the corridor, stopping outside their room for Nina to let them in. "What do you want to do tonight?" He asked her, pushing open the door when he heard the door click.  
  
"I didn't make any plans - I didn't know if you wanted to get some rest, or get some dinner." Nina followed him into the hotel, gladly agreeing to be lifted and kissed as the door clicked shut. "Or just stay in?" She suggested. This was their last night here, they were driving back tomorrow afternoon, Monday, January 15th, Martin Luther King day. It was probably the last time they'd share a bed for the entire night.  
  
"Or see a movie?" Jack suggested, depositing her on the floor again, he wandered over to his night bag and rummaged through it, collecting his bathing pack.  
  
"Is there one you particularly want to see?" Nina asked, folding her arms across her chest as she watched him from the vantage point in the centre of the room.  
  
"No," Jack headed towards the bathroom, "I just want to see a movie with you."  
  
Distracted, Nina smiled to herself for a minute, not noticing Jack was planning on taking a bath until the lights and taps went on in the bathroom. "Hey!" She yelled at him, plodding towards the bathroom. She put her arms around the doorframe and watched as he undid his belt, again.  
  
"What?" Jack asked, tugging his shirt out of his trousers and pushing it off his shoulders.  
  
"I said I was going to have a shower." She complained.  
  
"I'm not stopping you." He muttered, not realising that the bath couldn't run at the same time as the shower, nor could their feet occupy the same space, he just wanted to be naked and wet, clean wouldn't have hurt either.  
  
He dropped his trousers and boxers to the floor, having kicked off his shoes in the bedroom. Nina smiled in spite of herself, watching Jack, stark naked, leaning over the tub and testing the water was hilarious, at least in her opinion. After nearly a minute of standing hunched over the tub he climbed in, turning the hot tap up a bit in lieu of a more sustained shiver upon hitting the water.  
  
"You taking a shower?" He asked her, collecting his soap from the side of the tub, he dunked it in the water and began frothing it between his hands.  
  
Nina took a step towards the tub, he'd folded his feet so she had space to stand and take a shower. "And what were you going to do whilst I did?" She queried, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Enjoy the show." He joked, raising a leg out of the water and rubbing the soap over his hairy lower leg.  
  
She leant in and kissed him, simultaneously reaching for the zipper on the back of her dress. There wasn't much point wasting the hot water. She let the champagne stained dress drop to the floor, on top of Jack's carefully laid towel, and pushed off her knickers. She climbed into the water onto of him, kissing him as she straddled his lap.  
  
"Okay, I like this, but I thought you were having a shower? I was going to get a show." He joked with her, prodding her ribs.  
  
"I thought that was what tonight was for?" She retorted, kissing him again.  
  
Jack pulled her tighter onto his lap, "No tonight is for doing the traditional dating thing, a movie, like in high school." He confided.  
  
Every statement seemed to need punctuating with a kiss, so they did that before she spoke. "So I'm getting felt up in the cinema, and then we're going to have car sex?" Nina checked, suddenly realising her damp hair was champagne sodded and not water logged. She gripped Jack's shoulders and leant backwards, dunking her head in the water and shaking it a little to get some champagne out.  
  
Jack was momentarily distracted by the visual, and helped her sit upright on his lap again. "Yeah, any problems with that?"  
  
-24-  
  
Jack slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her to his hip, a position he was finding was very comfortable for the two of them. They filed out of the movie theatre with the other patrons at the end of the eleven o'clock showing of 'Monsters Inc', a childrens movie that had only come out the previous weekend. It was nearly one o'clock now, but neither of them were tired, having only been awake twelve hours and spent most of that time being lazy.  
  
"What did you think then?" Nina asked as they stood out the front, looking in dismay at the parking lot, largely empty, noting where their rental car was parked half way across the lot.  
  
"The little girl was cute." He replied, thinking of the animated child that ran around carrying a little teddy bear. It wasn't exactly manly for him to be thinking about how sweet a cartoon child was, but Nina took it for nostalgia about his own daughter, and Jack wasn't about to object.  
  
"You don't think we should have seen something a little more..." Nina paused as she considered the titles they'd been presented with.  
  
"Action packed?" She nodded, and Jack continued his prompting, "Gory? Sadistic? Raunchy?...Nah, we would have wanted to pay attention to it then." She laughed.  
  
"Well, what do you want to do now?" She asked him. Tonight was really Jack's showboat, he picked the movie and now he was planning the rest of the night. It was quite early, for both of them, considering their nocturnal workaholism.  
  
"Eat." Jack replied. He fished the keys out of his pocket, and they kept walking, there were still twenty or so parking spaces to go before their car. Jack glanced at her whilst she took in the traffic on the highway. "So, I was thinking..."  
  
"Hmm."  
  
"Earlier on you said you'd do anything I want." Jack reminded her, "on the grass, after the champagne."  
  
Nina laughed, "Oh god." She dreaded what was coming.  
  
"So, anyway I had a few creative ideas for tonight..." She brought her free hand to cradle her head as she thought of some of the more exploratory escapades they'd performed together - there had only been a few, they weren't afforded much time together in LA. She laughed as Jack continued. "not many, um, we can stop if they creep you out too much...asparagus, boiled, for use as a whip..."  
  
Okay, he was joking, he had to be. A quick glance confirmed her suspicion, and she shook her head at him. "So where do you want to eat?" Jack changed the subject, as they approached the car. He pressed the release button on the car doors and the car clicked and the headlights flashed as it opened.  
  
Nina let go of him and rounded the car as he paused by the drivers side door. "Not much will be open now, a diner? I don't know."  
  
Jack nodded, and climbed into the car. "It's probably our best bet." He said, turning the keys in the ignition, the radio came on, quite loud and Nina turned it down - the singer was just repeating the words 'Strange Relationship' over and over, and after four repetitions it began to unnerve her, so she pressed the search button, and found another channel, this one playing classical piano music. Jack didn't seem perturbed by the lyrics of the song, but they stuck with Nina untill they found an all-night diner to eat in.  
  
-24-  
  
"I can't believe you've never done this before." Nina repeated for nearly the twentieth time since they'd gotten into the water. She glanced over at Jack, sitting on the surfboard, looking over his shoulder at the waves. He glanced over at her to let her know he'd heard her, but he didn't say anything, and quickly resumed watching the waves. "When I moved to LA it was the first thing I checked out." She told him, "This is surf-central, well, except Hawaii."  
  
Jack spotted a wave that looked like it fit the criteria. "What do I do again?" He asked her - he wanted his first experience to be a good one.  
  
"Just ride your board until the wave starts to crash, and they try and get on your knees, and then stand." Nina repeated, she'd given him an actual demonstration a few minutes ago. She was confident he knew what to do, just wanted to do it right the first time. She turned and looked at the approaching water. "Don't go for this one, though." She told him.  
  
"Why not?" Jack asked.  
  
"The next one looks like it will crash much harder." She told him, paddling backwards a little from her seat on the board. Lots of the surfers around them paddled forwards, deciding to take the small wave, whilst they moved back.  
  
Nina flopped onto her stomach, dropping her hands in the water. "You ready?" She yelled over the surf.  
  
Jack laughed, and then leant down on his board too. The wave arrived and crashed onto the rock table that supported the beach, propelling Nina, Jack and all the other surfers to the beach. Jack, much to his suprise, managed to climb to his feet on top of the board, and rode the wave in, arriving a few seconds before Nina.  
  
He picked up his board and stood it up on the sand, holding onto it whilst Nina carried hers over to him. "Well?" She asked. Not expecting an answer when she noticed the massive grin.  
  
"Wow."  
  
"Fun?" She queried, hoisting the heavy slab of wood up on her hip. Jack nodded, and she leant in to kiss him, she noticed the top of his nose looked a little sore. "You need to put some lotion on." She told him, and they headed back up the beach towards their towels and few personal belongings.  
  
Nina pulled out a bottle of suntan lotion and squirted some onto her fingers as Jack dropped himself onto the towel next to her, kicking up sand onto their things. "Come here." She told him, and he repositioned himself on the beach sheet, leaving a leg either side of her, to allow easy access to his face and kicking up another sand storm in the process. Nina made a series of little dots down his nose with the sun tan lotion, leaving another two on the ridge of his forehead, just above his eyebrows.  
  
Jack snorted "You playing or are you putting suntan lotion on me?"  
  
"A little of both." She replied, smudging the lotion into his sensitive, and probably already burnt skin.  
  
She rubbed any remaining lotion into the palm of her hand. "You got any on?" He asked her, wrinkling his sticky nose.  
  
"Yeah, did you put any on this morning?" She questioned, clicking the lid to the lotion bottle shut and pushing it back into her bag.  
  
"No, but you probably wouldn't have done if you were wearing a wet suit." Jack replied, he slid a finger under one of the neck straps of her bikini. "I'm surprised this hasn't fallen off yet." He commented.  
  
Nina turned and reached over his leg for her sunglasses. She managed to slip them on before Jack kissed her again, completing her outfit, black shades, black hair and black bikini. The bikini was a stringy halterneck, with ties on the briefs too, which had provided Jack with amusement for nearly an hour before they left the hotel, and then again when they got to the beach. It seemed like it was about to creep up on her again.  
  
They were both soaking wet, having spent the last hour, maybe two, in the water, swimming out the the crest of the waves, and then back in again. Jack pulled her to him, as she was, turned with her side to him, and gripped her side where the ties were. It wasn't long before his skilled fingers grasped them, and had them untied.  
  
Nina decided not to say anything this time, convinced that he'd been encouraged the last two times by her objections. Jack slid a hand into her briefs and sure enough, after a few moments, during which she desperately begged her mouth to keep shut, he tied the stretchy bands shut again, and let his hands hold her close again.  
  
"It's nice here." Jack muttered to her as a seagull swooped low on the beach in front of them.  
  
"Yeah." She said whistfully.  
  
Jack leant into her ear "Thank you for this weekend." He said softly. Nina turned, surprised at his kind words and he kissed her, capturing her mouth before she could say anything. "I've had a wonderful time." He told her.  
  
She nodded when they pulled apart, pressing her head against his chest and ignoring the world for a moment whilst it moved around her. Jack pulled his watch from its hiding place in the towel and looked at the time. He sighed, they needed to head back up to the hotel soon so they could pack and make it back to the city before rush hour traffic descended upon the world.  
  
He pressed a kiss to her salty hair and squeezed her hip. "Do you want to try and catch another wave?" He asked her. He'd enjoyed surfing, and he hoped that he'd get another chance to do it.  
  
Nina shook her head, not saying anything. Jack scowled, pulling away from her to get a look at her face. She sat upright with a bolt and mopped at her cheeks, seemingly watching the waves. "Are you okay?" He asked, now sitting behind her back.  
  
She didn't respond, and he ran a hand down her back, it shone in the sun because of the water she'd absorbed off of his wet suit, and he traced a line down her back before she shrugged her shoulders, effectively swatting his hand away. "Nina?" Jack said again.  
  
He listened as she pulled in a deep breath, and then watched as she shed her sunglasses and stood up. She picked up her board and looked down at him, extending a hand. Jack squinted up at her and then rose, collecting his board, deciding not to pry anymore.  
  
-24-  
  
Most of the drive back to the city was miserable. From twenty miles outside LA they stopped speaking to each other, and Nina drove in silence. Jack knew it was disappointing, having to return home, to their normal lives, after a weekend of fun together. He had to return to the problems he'd left with Teri and Kim, and see what she wanted now she'd read the divorce papers and had time to think about them, maybe consult with Kitty and Emma, his wife's closest friends.  
  
Jack was surprised that Teri hadn't tried to call him again after Friday night. He'd told Kim he was away for the weekend, but he hadn't expected Teri to think of that as a reason not to call. He rested an arm on the window sill and watched the approaching skyline, lit up as the sun dropped in the sky, the view was beautiful, one you could only see from outside the city, unfortunately Jack rarely left. It would have been lovely to just stop at the side of the road and watch the rest of the sunset, but it wasn't a luxury that they had.  
  
He glanced over at Nina in the drivers seat. It was a clear road, they'd ended up meeting LA after rush hour rather than before it, and Nina was just sitting there with her foot on the gas and the car in 5th gear, making minute adjustments to the steering wheel as she sat in the outside lane.  
  
The silence stretched between them like the freeway did in front of them, and Jack sighed. He wanted to talk, but he didn't know what to say. "Lovely weather we're having, isn't it?"  
  
Nina laughed, "It took you fifty miles to come up with that? God, you must be bored." She glanced over at him every other word as she spoke. "I thought you were good at getting people to talk."  
  
"It's working, isn't it?" Jack pointed out. He reached down and grabbed Nina's hand on the seat. It was cold to touch, she was freezing. "You're freezing." He jerked his had away from her and turned the heater up to maximum. The roof was up, but the car was still a little cold.  
  
Nina rubbed her hand on her legs, trying to warm it up with the friction. "I was thinking I'd drop you off at your place and then go home. I'll drop the car off at the rental place before work tomorrow." Seemed like a reasonable plan, so Jack nodded.  
  
-24-  
  
Jack was expecting there to be a flashing light on his answering machine when he got home, so, as Nina walked past him to use his bathroom before she set back out on the road, he pressed the playback button. "Hi, Jack, It's me..." Began the voice on the answer machine. It was Teri, telling him she'd call back later. The machine bleeped, that was message number 14. It moved on "Hi Jack, Kim just said that you're going out of town..." Message number 13. Jack pressed the fast forward button, and spun the tape on a bit to the more recent messages.  
  
He pressed play again. "...anyway, it's completely up to you..." Teri's voice again, part of a large message. He went back to the begining of it and played it all the way through.  
  
"Jack, look, I realise that I've left lots of messages and you're away for the weekend, I'm just hoping where ever you are, that they let you call and check your messages. I'm feeling a little more...me?...I'm here, at the house, I'm working from home all day, so if you want to call...Jack, I know we haven't spoken in a while, but I'd like to talk to you about this divorce...actually I'd like you to get rid of it. Jack if we can fix this, don't you think we should? I want to talk to you, I want to sort this out. If not for us, then for Kim, she's having a terrible time of this, Jack I....anyway, it's completely up to you, I'm here all day." The machine beeped and Jack reached out a hand to stop it, shutting off the machine just as it told him that was the last message.  
  
He leant his head down into his hands, at some point during the telephone conversation he sat down on the arm of the couch next to the phone. What was he going to do? Kim was having a terrible time with their separation, and he still loved Teri. He'd never imagined that moving out would be permanent, he'd never once considered his tombstone would read anything other than "Jack Bauer, beloved husband and father - served his country with honour" What was he playing at? What was he doing? With Nina, with the divorce papers? Had he been serious about any of it?  
  
Nina picked that precise moment to re-emerge from the bathroom. She brushed down her skirt and stood in his doorway. "Okay, well, I'd better get going." She commented, before noticing Jack. "Jack, what's wrong?"  
  
  
  
The next chapter isn't crucial to the storyline. It will be the last chapter, and shouldn't be read until you've seen up to 11pm. Which is basically UKers. If you don't want to be spoilt, you can consider this the end of the story, it's pretty obvious what happens next. 


	7. Chapter contains spoilers

-24-  
  
Her break up with Jack last night rebounded in her head like a hangover. It threatened to wail up at any minute, and refused to be off put by coffee and fresh air. All it wanted was twelve hours of nonstop work sitting at her desk at CTU.  
  
Of course, the hangover similarities could have been there because after their easy break-up, she'd gone home and downed whatever was left in her bottle of tequila mixed with as much juice as was left in the carton in the fridge. She couldn't remember ever liking the taste of the stuff.  
  
She hadn't intended on drowning her sorrows. It was just something to do to put her out. She wanted to sleep, not to think, not to revel in her evening. She had intended to revel in the weekend, but now those memories were spoilt, and she just wanted to forget them. It was a pity that alcohol didn't remove the memories of things you did before you got drunk.  
  
She pushed the keyboard to the back of her desk as bile rose in her throat again. She hunched over the control pad and pressed a hand to her mouth and chest, she was not going to vomit on her keyboard, and she was not going to bolt to the bathroom, Tony was already giving her looks across the partition. One more and... "What?"  
  
Her sudden and raised voice elicited a response from several agents, Dana, who'd been heading over to talk to Tony, turned around and went back to her tiny cubicle. Tony raised his eyebrows and softened his focus. "Nothing, you just seem a little distracted today."  
  
Nina looked down at her clothes for a moment, pulling the blouse, and then back to her computer. The urge to wretch had subsided, so she pulled the keyboard forward, brushing off Tony. "I'm fine, Tony, get back to work."  
  
She was almost tempted to feel sorry for the dejected, soulful look on Tony's face, but her body was begging for caffeine, even though it wouldn't appease the terrible headache. She decided to ignore her somersaulting stomach and head for the conference room.  
  
Which was where she bumped into Jack, changing the filters on the cafetiere. She paused at the door and took a quick breath before she went inside. She didn't call attention to herself; she walked around the back of Jack and took a quick stock of the mugs around the sink. Even though hers was just one plain black mug out of many, she knew it wasn't there, and bent down to the cupboard underneath, taking her mug from the front row of the upper shelf.  
  
Jack must have noticed she was there at some point whilst she was knelt on the floor, because he spoke her name, reserving his comments for when she rose to her feet. "I was just about to head upstairs." He pressed the 'on' button on the machine and folded his arms.  
  
Nina nodded, slowly, not wanting to shake her head too much. She placed her mug next to his on the counter. Jack would fill it up with his when the kettle boiled. He watched his arms as the sleeve ran up on his right arm, which, as it was folded was closer to her.  
  
There was a love bite on his forearm, inside the wrist, just above the joint. It was a painful spot to get a love bite, but Teri used to do it to him, she remembered the fading scars from the beginning of their relationship. She took a deep breath, and averted her eyes when Jack began to sense what she was looking at. The silence had already dragged on for a long time.  
  
"Nina, we can't let this affect our work ethic." Jack lectured. He tried to make it sound anything but, but the love bite spoke for itself.  
  
"I know." She met his eyes for a second before rolling them. Jack, ever the tortured soul, ever the patient listener, hard to up hold at this moment, with that giant vacuum sucked red poker patch on his wrist. "I just don't know what to say to you right now."  
  
The kettle boiled in silence, and she collected the mug from the counter. Not a word to Jack as she brushed past him and left the room. Her coffee mug went down on her desk with a bang, and her blotter mopped up the spilt coffee. She snatched her phone from the desktop and wandered down the storage corridors under Jack's office.  
  
Being married gave him some rights, but screwing his wife the night he'd broken up with her was out of line. He'd said he wanted time to get his life back together, he loved his daughter, and he needed to sort himself out before he could think of going back to Teri. Sort himself out with what? A pack of condoms from the drug store and a bottle of wine. The love bite didn't confirm it, but it was proof enough. Jack would never have left her if she'd been turned on enough to do that to him, why would he leave Teri unsatisfied? Problems in their marriage aside, if they really wanted to sleep together, would it have made any difference? They would just hop into bed and deal with it all later, like she and Jack did that first night.  
  
She didn't care that it was irrational. She felt scorned; she was the spurned lover who was never meant to be one in the first place. She was meant to be isolated, to be objective, and here she knew her emotions had taken over and that it was unfair, but none of that stopped her from making the call.  
  
Her eyes darted around her as she spoke. She wasn't about to get caught. "Hello, I need to speak to Luzhin." She said, in German, to the assistant who took the call.  
  
He knew better than to ask who was calling. That simple question could cost him his life. It only took a moment for the handset to be held to Ysenkov Luzhin, a man in his fifties, a lawyer with the German federal prosecution service. He moonlighted as a mercenary, working out of western Germany. His thick Russian accent may have obliterated his German, but when he spoke English, it sent a pleasant chill down Nina's spine. "Hello."  
  
"I'm in." Nina said simply, switching back to English. Ysenkov had greeted her in German, but she wasn't going to tax the linguistic centre of her brain unless she had to. "The thing with Andre, I'm in."  
  
Ysenkov recognised the voice of his young protégé, an agent working for the CTU in LA. He'd given her the code name Yelena because she was a 'torch light' - often able to find people of things others couldn't because of her contacts at work. She'd told him she wouldn't help during their last conversation, that poor Andre and Alexis, the Drazen brothers, would have to cope without vengeance on their mother and sister if it meant that someone she cared about had to suffer. He'd accused her of getting too attached to her normal life, but she didn't care, and neither did he. Ysenkov had made arrangements on the behalf of the Drazens anyway, and if Yelena talked she would soon find that any of her claims would be unsubstantiated. He could move the entire operation to another city at a moments notice. "Are you sure?"  
  
"Yes, I'm in." Nina was adamant she would get her point across to him. "What do you need me to do?"  
  
Ysenkov sighed. "There is an agent at your office that has compiled some data on a keycard."  
  
Nina backed away from the main corridor as she saw two agents come towards her. "And?"  
  
"She compiled it from your computer, apparently you didn't come in this weekend." Ysenkov told her. This agent was providing links to the computer system at CTU, and Ysenkov had taken a little time to watch her, to see what she was doing.  
  
"No, I didn't." She told him, her voice a little wet.  
  
"I need you to clarify those accesses, as though..."  
  
"...As though I did them, because there's no chance in hell I did." Nina finished for him, feeling a little more business like.  
  
"Exactly. Do you have a witness for your whereabouts?" Ysenkov asked her. "An unimpeachable witness." He knew about her affair with her boss. The agents under his thumb at the Federal agencies district control board fed him office gossip.  
  
"Yes." Nina replied simply. She wasn't stupid enough to name him; she also knew that Ysenkov knew exactly whom she'd been with.  
  
"Is it over between you?" He asked her. Ysenkov had only had her once, and whilst he didn't want to act the jealous lover, the question begged answering.  
  
"Completely."  
  
He wasn't a completely emotionless man. He wanted happiness for many of his operatives; unfortunately, it wasn't an easy thing to have in their jobs, either their real ones or what they did for him. At the same time, Ysenkov Luzhin wasn't strong enough to comfort her. "Contact me when you've done that." Either way, he wasn't going to give her any more information until he was more confident she'd be willing to work for him.  
  
Nina shut her phone, effectively ending the phone call. She took a quick glance up and down the corridor before stepping back out onto the floor. It was time to stop being a moping lovelorn loser; she had to get back to work, to what she was good at. Jack wasn't going to give her any crap. It was over between them, and it shouldn't have even happened in the first place.  
  
It was time to get back to what she did best, being a manipulative, scheming bitch.  
  
-24-  
  
See, so there's a guy called Luzhin, who Nina uses as a defense against Jack, and like the book this starts by being about chess. So I have to power to write the novels that aren't about what they say they are. Not that this qualifies as a novel, per se. Feedback much welcomed, use my new email address - aria@ctunetwork.zzn.com 


End file.
